Thanks to our friends at Cornish Pirates, especially Woll for the match report and Simon Bryant for the photo.Cornish Pirates 18-17 Bristol
RFU Championship Round 21
Sunday 19th February 2012
Kick Off 2pm
Round 21 Games
Woll's Match Report
After a few weeks of slugging it out on the mud plains and snow fields that have plagued Championship rugby of late; the sunshine that bathed the Mennaye to provide perfect conditions for a true west country battle, could only have come as welcome relief.
And what a battle we got, with the Pirates eventually emerging with the points from a game that looked to have been slipping from their grasp with half an hour remaining.
Ten minutes later however; and a dull decision from Sambucetti to lash out at Burgess on the floor to earn himself a ten minute sit down; shifted the whole complexion of the contest back in favour of the hosts, who duly delivered the match winning try through lock, Ian Nimmo.
But there were still twenty minutes left and plenty of time for a few twists and turns surely? We weren’t to be disappointed.
Not that anyone had been prior, as the fuse for a full on scrap had been lit even before the visitors had kicked off proceedings towards the Newlyn End. Messr’s Paver and Sambucetti apparently having a contretemps as the home side run out, with the Argentine ending up investigating the pitch condition closely, and sooner than he perhaps intended.
Forty seconds later, and the first of several early skirmishes erupted as Bristol infringed at the breakdown. The tone was set and it was the Cornishmen who seemed to profit from this feistiness, as their pack took charge and provided enough for the Pirates already decimated back line, to play with. And, for the first ten or so minutes they did with Short and Doherty looking dangerous.
The reward for this endeavor came early as firstly Pointer with a 43m penalty, and yet another try for eventual man of the match; Ward; gave the Cornishmen an eight point advantage. Cook’s missed conversion only putting his double century of points for the season on hold for the time being.
But then a blow that appeared to take the wind out of their sails, as Short had to leave the field, with a shoulder injury only adding to a list of back line casualties that refuses to diminish.
Bristol sensed this and took full advantage with their pack quickly taking control and allowing the simple things to be done well. Only a marginal forward pass to Mama denied the visitors a merited try of their own sooner than Eave’s 30 th minute success, which, with Roberts’ three tee kicks, enabled the top spot holders more than their 8-11 half time advantage.
Piratical woes increased during the break, as Pointer had to be withdrawn with a slight concussion; and mounted further as Bristol picked up from where they had left off.
Roberts consistency with the boot added three more, ten minutes into the second period, after Evans paid the price for his hands in a ruck and the home crowd, boosted by a large travelling contingent, must have wondered if this wasn’t to be their day.
Cook though finally got on the scoreboard soon after and, backed up with some resilient defence that was epitomised by Doherty’s try saving tackle on the impressive Helu; a few chinks of light did appear despite being a man down.
Then came the Argentine’s moment of madness and the rest as they say, was history, as the Pirate pack once again took the bull by the horns.
Burgess and Cattle came agonisingly close, before Nimmo finally put the host’s noses in front. But the missed chances that came and went only added to the excitement and prolonged the biting of nails from all quarters; Maidment, Doherty and Cattle (again) all inches from glory and some breathing space.
Step up Roberts then to add a fourth penalty and make it a single point ball game with still twenty minutes remaining.
Bristol’s old war horse, Crompton, was then thrown on to steady the scrum as we moved into penalty try territory. But within thirty seconds he was trundling off again having further incurred Mr. Carley’s wrath at scrum time.
It was enough though to buy time for his compadres to re-group and weather this particular storm. It wasn’t however enough to provide one last effort to snatch a win and deny the Pirates a chance to even the score for the season as Cattle finally called time with a box kick into the Old Western National Corner.
Relief came at last and a real chance next week to secure second spot beckons, subject to results of course.
Hopes too; that Paul Andrew’s stretchering off at the end, looked worse than it actually transpires to be, as the prop suffered a neck injury in the breakdown that saw that man Wardy, turn the ball over for his skipper to end the game.
But then front row forwards from these points are made of granite. He’ll be fine!
Cornish Pirates
15 R. Cook 14 G. Pointer (20 T. Kessell HT) 13 A. Short (22 M. Evans 22mins) 12 T. Cooper 11 D. Doherty 10 A. Penberthy (21 C. Thomas 69mins) 9 G. Cattle (capt) 8 K. Marriott 7 P. Burgess 6 C. Morgan 5 I. Nimmo 4 M. Smith (19 B. Maidment 60mins) 3 A. Paver (18 C. Rimmer 69mins) 2 D. Ward 1 R. Storer (16 P. Andrew 53mins)
Replacements: un-used 17 T. Cowan-Dickie
Tries; Ward, Morgan
Conversions; Cook
Penalties: Pointer, Cook
Yellow: Evans
Bristol
15 J. Goodridge 14 J. Tovey 13 W. Helu 12 L. Eves 11 M. Williams 10 T. Roberts (22 M. Jones 65mins) 9 R. Tipuna (c) (21 T. Slater 78mins) 1 M. Irish (17 D. Crompton 71mins) 2 R. Johnston (16 R. Lawrence 47 mins) 3 J. Hobson (18 W. Thompson 71mins) 4 M. Sambucetti (19 B. Glynn 65mins) 5 G. Townson 6 H. Vanderglas 7 M. Mama (1 M. Irish 74-80+mins) 8 D. Montagu (20 I. Grieve 65mins)
Replacements: all used
Tries; Eves
Penalties: Roberts 4
Yellow: Sambucetti, Crompton
Match Officials
Referee: Matthew Carley
Assistants: Nick Williams, Richard Parker Sedgemore
Man of the Match: Dave Ward
Attendance: 3115
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Match Day Sponsor: SITA UK
No comments:
Post a Comment